NIH and NSF During Government Shutdown

We hope the government shutdown is short-lived; however, if not, we will plan for its implications and will work with you in support of your research. To assist you with your NSF and NIH proposal preparation and award management efforts you will find highlights below relating to the government shutdown. Information for other federal agencies plans can be found here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/contingency-plans

Please forward to us any correspondence you receive that you do not think was addressed to the Office of Research in order to help you track any changes in proposal or award statuses.

If you have specific questions, please contact Rick Hilliard, 631-5386 or Hilliard.1@nd.edu for Pre-Award or Mike Zenk, 631-9972 or mzenk@nd.edu for Post-Award guidance or you may contact us more generally at ORhelp@nd.edu or 631-7432.

NSF Assistance and Contract-Related Policy and Systems Issues During the Government Shutdown Highlights:

Proposal Preparation & Submission

No new funding opportunities (program descriptions, announcements or solicitations) will be issued.

FastLane proposal preparation and submission will be unavailable.

Grants.gov may be up and running, however, since FastLane will not be operating, proposal downloads from Grants.gov will not take place. Therefore, proposals will not be checked or processed until normal operations are allowed to resume.

However,we encourage all PIs to continue completing and routing their applications so they are ready to submit to the agencies when we receive further submission guidance.

Performance of Work

Awardees may continue performance under their NSF awards during the shutdown, to the extent funds are available, and the term of the grant or cooperative agreement has not expired. During the shutdown, NSF cannot authorize costs exceeding available award amounts or obligate additional funds to cover costs.

Since the FastLane system will be unavailable: project reporting, no-cost extensions, award transfer and supplemental funding requests will not be able to be submitted or processed during the shutdown.

NIH Information During Lapse of Federal Government Funding Highlights:

Proposal Preparation & Submission

For the duration of the funding lapse, applicants are strongly encouraged not to submit paper or electronic grant applications to NIH during the period of the lapse. Adjustments to application submission dates that occur during the funding lapse will be announced once operations resume. For any applications submitted immediately prior to or during the funding lapse, here is what will happen.

For electronic submissions through Grants.gov:Grants.gov will be open and can accept electronic applications. However, applications will not be processed by NIH until the eRA Systems are back on-line. NIH will ensure that all applications submitted within the two business days before or during the funding lapse will receive the full viewing window once the systems are back on-line.

Therefore, we encourage all PIs to continue completing and routing their applications so they are ready to submit to the agencies when we receive further submission guidance.

Notice of Awards (NoAs)

No NIH grant awards will be processed for the duration of the funding lapse. For any awards processed before the funding lapse that have an issue date during the funding lapse, the awards will not be sent to the grantee on the issue date. Once operations resume, all pending NoAs will be sent. This will not affect the start date nor the issue date of these awards; it just affects the date the award document is actually sent to the grantee and available for access in the eRA Commons. In the absence of actually receiving the NoA, institutions may use pre-award costs authority at their own risk.

Since the eRA Commons system will not be accessible: progress reports, notice of awards, no-cost extensions, award transfer and supplemental funding requests will not be able to be submitted or processed during the lapse of federal-government funding.